“Females can do it, too.” – Samantha Barnes
What was your childhood dream? Did you dream of becoming a doctor whose sole purpose was to save lives? Or was your dream to head up into the great unknown as an astronaut? Maybe your dream was to stop the bad guys and become a police officer. Whatever the dream, the outcome is almost always the same: somewhere along the way, we stop chasing those youthful fantasies. For Townsquare Media’s Regional Content Director, Sam Barnes, her childhood dream is a reality she gets to live out each and every day.
As a native New Yorker, corn fields and cow pastures weren’t exactly second nature to Townsquare Media’s Regional Content Director and on air personality, Sam Barnes. That, however, would quickly change when she was uprooted from the busy streets of Brooklyn to the open roads of Canton, Missouri. “I moved from Brooklyn to Canton, Missouri in 1991, and it was a culture shock,” said Barnes with a soft laugh and a smile. “You know, I went from living in the big city to a place where there was a literal cow in my front yard. It makes you go, what is going on here?”
Although the first few months of her newly rural life were spent questioning her newfound home, it was that very home that gave her a love for the radio. “Because of the move, I got to listen to a lot of radio. The Big Dog, [Jeff Dorsey], was from Brooklyn and it made me realize that maybe we weren’t the only people from New York living around here,” Sam remembered.
Fellow New Yorker Jeff Dorsey’s role as the Big Dog became pivotal in the trajectory of Sam’s life. “The Big Dog and D.O. became my go to in the mornings, and it really did sound like they were having so much fun. So as I got into high school, I started thinking about what I wanted to do with my life, and that’s when it hit me. I wanted to go into radio, and that’s all because of the Big Dog and D.O.,” Barnes stated fondly.
Armored with a love for local on-air talent and a dream to have her voice be broadcasted, Barnes set out to college to accomplish the goals she’d set for herself just a few years before. “I went to Northwest Missouri State University where I got into the radio there and was able to be on the college radio station. I then did an internship during the summer of my junior year at Star Radio and had the best time. In 2003, I graduated and by July of that year, I was working in radio,” recalled Barnes.
The road to radio wasn’t a smooth path for Sam. She not only had to work hard to get where she is today, but she had to start at the very very beginning. “My first job was for a radio station, but it was as the receptionist. Was it what I wanted? Not necessarily, but you have to start somewhere,” stated Sam. Her role as the receptionist wasn’t a permanent position for Barnes. She quickly moved from receptionist to producer to on-air personality. The life she’d wanted since her adolescent days were coming true right before her eyes.
After 13 years with the Star radio family, Sam Barnes chose to turn off her mic and pursue other opportunities. In 2017, Barnes started her journey with Townsquare Media. “I was literally living out my dream there, but in 2016, I decided to leave Star, and I joined Townsquare in 2017,” recalled Sam. “In the beginning, I was basically just a Brand Manager but I was living my dream. I got to do something new every single day. I worked my way up from Brand Manager to Operations Manager to my current role as a Regional Content Director. My role is to help other Townsquare Media markets grow their on-air and online audiences on top of the morning show I do on KICK-FM. I love being able to do something new every single day.”
As the Regional Content Director, Sam’s job is to facilitate growth. A job that has quickly become a passion of hers. “In my current role, I get to help other stations grow and there’s really something gratifying about that. To be able to go into these stations and say ‘You’re content is great, but let’s do this with it’ can be really rewarding. I’m able to watch their numbers grow and see them start to succeed with a little help from me,” proudly stated Barnes.
As a leader, Barnes finds herself in a position to help those around her, and that’s a position she chooses to lead diligently from. “I want the people I work with to know how I can help them. They are, obviously, very talented whether they’re on-air or online. So I go about leading from the perspective of how am I going to use my skills to make them better. Because of that, I like to ask the people I’m working with when I first meet them ‘Where do you see yourself in five years?’ I want to know where people see themselves within the company so I can help build them up and get them there,” stated Sam. “Once I’ve learned their goals, we work step by step to try and get them where they want to be and, ultimately, make them the best they can be at their position.”
As a servant leader, Barnes has noticed a slight difference between her leadership style and that of her male counterparts. “There’s an element to my style that is a bit more understanding and less harsh. Sometimes there may be a situation with an employee where there’s something going on in their personal life, and I have the ability to look at that objectively and say ‘Okay. You have that going on, and I’m sorry that’s happening.’ I’ll try and redirect them to focus on work, but I always have it in the back of my mind that that person has something more going on,” stated Sam. “There are times where I end up feeling a bit like a therapist, but I do think they are able to open up to me in a way that’s different because I’m a mom of two, and a wife, and a daughter, and a sister. I understand what people are going through, and that pushes me to lead in a different way than others. Understanding a person helps you to better understand their work ethic and make them a better employee.”
At the beginning of her career, Sam Barnes was eager to jump right in, but she was also aware of the lack of feminine energy in the broadcasting industry. That awareness only helped fuel her drive and helped land her where she is today. “When I first started my career in 2003, there weren’t a lot of female broadcasters. It’s a male dominated field, and that kind of drove me to want to find my place but also be put in a position to encourage other females to get into radio,” stated Barnes. “I’ve had great mentors who helped me get where I am, and because of that, I now find myself mentoring men and women who are coming up. And as much as I love the men, and want to see them succeed, there’s a special place in my heart for the women I mentor, because I just want to see them climb that ladder and really succeed at what they do.”
Sam’s love of radio and desire to be on-air helped lead her to Star Radio and Townsquare Media, but her passion for the job and determination to learn it all lead her to a role she never dreamt of being in. “I really just wanted to be on-air and hear myself on the radio in the beginning,” stated Barnes with a laugh. “It was one of those things that once I had my heart set on being in this industry, I was just going to do it anyway I could. That’s just the kind of person I am.”
As much as Sam enjoys her role as the Regional Content Director, there’s something special about her time on-air every weekday morning. “To know that I am affecting people both on-air with the morning show on KICK-FM and then with my content I get to write for the website, it’s special. I never thought in the 20 years I’ve been doing this that after I get off the air, that I would write content that thousands of people read everyday. It’s a different voice, but it’s a voice I get to use just as wisely,” stated Sam with a proud smile.
As a 21 year veteran of the radio industry, there are a few sage pieces of advice that Sam was more than happy to give out to the next generation of female leaders. “Do everything. Just do absolutely everything you possibly can. Do the internship, whether it’s paid or not, and do what they ask of you. If they ask you to get the coffee, get coffee. If they ask you to take out the trash, take out the trash. If they ask you to be a part of a huge presentation, do your part to make it a success,” said Sam. “Do everything you can to be a sponge and soak it all in. It’s only going to make you more valuable in the end, because you can go to your first job interview and confidently say you know how to do this and you know how to do that because you allowed yourself to be that sponge.”
We all need a little motivation from time to time, and for this mother of two, motivation comes from a supportive husband of 20 years and two daughters she hopes she’s inspiring. “My family motivates me. That may be a stereotypical answer, but I have two girls that I want to show that it doesn’t matter if you’re a girl or a boy, you can do anything you want to be. My youngest, Lexi, wants to be a kicker on a football team, and I always tell her to go for it. Because what’s stopping her? She has big dreams and she’s only 11, so I love that she gets to see me be the leader that I am, and I hope it gives her, and her older sister Ava, the confidence they deserve to have. My girls are very much my motivation because they push me to not only be a better mom, but to be a better leader.”
You’ll often hear people say “Never give up on your dreams,” but as we get older, and reality sets in, dreams become nothing more than distant and fleeting memories. For Townsquare Media’s Regional Content Director, Sam Barnes, a dream, and a whole lot of hard work, put her in a position to be one of the area’s biggest and brightest leaders.
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